Modern Foreign Languages
FRENCH
The national curriculum programme of study states that: ‘learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read literature in the target language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.’ This is what we intend to implement through our French curriculum at Blessed Thomas Holford.
Our French curriculum is centred around the three pillars of language learning: phonics, grammar, and vocabulary. These pillars are taught explicitly and intrinsically though a range of reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. Themes have been selected to both engage pupils and serve as fundamentally useful topics for enhancing their understanding and knowledge. Pupils in every year are also exposed to a range of careers-based and extra-curricular activities to support them in developing an understanding of post-16 routes with languages, as well as develop cultural capital. The department also offers trips to France and other cultural trips.
At key stage 3, our curriculum intent aims to develop key skills within reading, writing, listening and speaking as well as build grammatical, phonetical and vocabulary bases. This begins to equip students to tackle the demands on them at GCSE, with a wide range of topics which expose our students to a plethora of activities across the aforementioned skills. Low-stakes retrieval activities feature heavily in the curriculum plans in order to allow students to practice recall in a non-risk learning environment. In addition, cultural activities have been implemented into the curriculum, providing students with the opportunity to develop a keen interest and knowledge of different customs and ways of life.
Within Year 7 topics pupils develop key skills such as being able to master the alphabet and numbers and being able to tell the time as well as developing a grammatical base in terms of adjectives, opinions, masculine and feminine and the present tense amongst other skills. Phonics features in every topic studied to continually build confidence in speech and pronunciation. In Year 8 the schemes of work followed by students build upon and frequently revisit the foundations established in Year 7. It is also within this year that building on prior concepts and high frequency language becomes more prominent. Students will begin to develop their extended writing skills through giving detailed opinions with reasons and develop a wider vocabulary base to be able to express themselves in more complex structures.
As students move into Year 9 pupils begin to follow a curriculum that builds on the key concepts in key stage 4 through different contexts. Within French, students begin to study topics that link to themes that students will study at GCSE. Many of the activities that appear in the GCSE examination feature throughout the schemes of learning to allow students to develop the skills and vocabulary/grammatical knowledge early on to confidently face these activities in the GCSE examinations.
Students in Year 10 build on topics required at GCSE. It is within this year that soft skills are continuing to be developed and mastered, with the opportunity for students to practise individual speaking skills. Listening and reading skills are developed through a variety of texts, including literary and authentic texts, as well as an understanding of the skills required to successfully retrieve the correct information from a passage. Low-stakes retrieval activities feature heavily in the curriculum plans in order to allow students to practice recall in a non-risk learning environment. Year 11 typically begin with the topic of jobs and future careers. After this, students study celebrations and customs, as well as social work. Both topics require students to enhance and exploit their deeper thinking to reflect on current issues in the world.
Homework is mostly set online and underpins the curriculum learnt in lessons. It is pivotal in enabling students to develop their language learning outside of the classroom. It is absolutely crucial that languages are kept alive in such a manner to improve recall and comprehension.
SPANISH
The national curriculum programme of study states that: ‘learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.’ This is what we aim to instil through our Spanish curriculum at Blessed Thomas Holford.
Our Spanish curriculum is centres around the three pillars of language learning: phonics, grammar, and vocabulary. These pillars are taught explicitly and intrinsically though a range of reading, writing, listening and speaking activities. Themes have been selected to both engage pupils and serve as fundamentally useful topics for enhancing their understanding and knowledge.
At key stage 3, we blend our skills thematically. Our curriculum design aims to develop key skills within reading, writing, listening and speaking as well as build grammatical, phonetical and vocabulary bases. This begins to equip pupils to tackle the demands on them at GCSE, with a wide range of topics which expose our pupils to a plethora of activities across the aforementioned skills. Low-stakes retrieval activities feature heavily in the curriculum plans in order to allow pupils to practice recall in a non-risk learning environment. In addition, cultural activities have been implemented into the curriculum, providing pupils with the opportunity to develop a keen interest and knowledge of different customs and ways of life.
Within Year 7 topics pupils develop key skills such as being able to master the alphabet and numbers and being able to tell the time as well as developing a grammatical base in terms of adjectives, opinions, masculine and feminine and the present tense amongst other skills. Phonics features in every topic studied to continually build confidence in speech and pronunciation. In Year 8 the schemes of work followed by pupils build upon and frequently revisit the foundations established in Year 7. It is also within this year that building on prior concepts and high frequency language becomes more prominent. Pupils will begin to develop their extended writing skills through giving detailed opinions with reasons and develop a wider vocabulary base to be able to express themselves in more complex structures.
As pupils move into Year 9 pupils begin to follow a curriculum that builds on the key concepts in key stage 3 through different contexts. Within Spanish, pupils begin to study topics that link to themes that they will study at GCSE. Many of the activities that appear in the GCSE examination feature throughout the schemes of learning to allow pupils to develop the skills and vocabulary/grammatical knowledge early on to confidently face these activities in the GCSE examinations.
In Year 10 pupils build on topics required at GCSE. It is within this year that soft skills are continuing to be developed and mastered, with the opportunity for them to practise individual speaking skills with a language assistant. Listening and reading skills are developed through a variety of texts, including literary and authentic texts, as well as an understanding of the skills required to successfully retrieve the correct information from a passage. Low-stakes retrieval activities feature heavily in the curriculum plans in order to allow pupilss to practice recall in a non-risk learning environment. Year 11 typically begin with the topic of jobs and future careers. After this, students study the topic of Hispanic festivals. Both topics require students to enhance and exploit their deeper thinking to reflect on current issues in the world.
Homework is pivotal in enabling students to develop their language learning outside of the classroom. It is absolutely crucial that languages are kept alive in such a manner to improve recall and comprehension.